The More They Stay the Same Part 1
Plot Part 1 scene opened up on a sunny day in Bellwood. People were walking down the busy street near the waterfront, and amongst them was someone dressed in complete black, drawing the attention of others, but not reciprocating the attention to them. The person's outfit consisted of a long cloak, jumpsuit, a hood, gloves, boots, and a black mask, effectively covering their entire body. They stopped in front of the door to a four-story, pale yellow brick building, and then slowly turned to it. They looked it up and down before clenching their left fist, causing the building to disappear. Despite the disappearance of the building, everyone and everything inside remained, meaning those who were not on the bottom floor fell to the ground, causing moderate to severe injuries in some, and even the death of some who either landed in an unfortunate way, or had something land on them amongst the falling desks and computers and whatnot. The person in the black cloak nonchalantly walked through the damage caused, and reached a small, fallen safe. They closed their left fist again, and the door to the safe disappeared. Just as the person grabbed the contents, guns we heard cocking. The person turned to see multiple cops already on the scene, pointing their guns at them. With their free hand, the person made the guns disappear before also disappearing, and then made the building return after leaving, although the damage still retained. One of the cops kicked the rubble in frustration while the other pulled out a small white device and talked into it. Cop: We're gonna need some backup. Bring in the aliens. too long later, with the area somewhat blocked off by the authorities, though with many civilians standing around trying to watch them do their work. A honking noise was heard. Everyone turned to the noise, and the civilians began to take out their phones for videos and pictures as an orange and tan truck pulled up. The side of the truck had a cartoonish drawing of an older man in a red Hawaiian shirt and white pants, and next to him was written "Max's Plumbing." The truck stopped just before the blockade, and outstepped two people. From the driver's seat, a light blue, humanoid-feline alien, clad in blue and black armor, stepped out: Rook Blonco. On his left shoulder was an orange and black device, the Prototool. From the passenger seat, a young adult human stepped out, wearing a black leather jacket with green details, a white shirt underneath, and blue jeans: Ben Tennyson. On his left wrist was a watch-like device with the same color scheme as his jacket and shirt, the Omnitrix. The two were let past the blockade and they approached one of the officers. Officer: Ben, Rook. Ben: Officer Curry. Rook: Blonko, please. Curry looked confused for a moment but rolled his eyes. Officer Curry: How much did they already tell you\ about what happened? Ben: Mysterious person dressed in all black makes a building disappear, injures and kills a bunch of people, steals something, disappears, and brings the building back. Rook: That is, without undoing the damage that had been done. Officer Curry: What do you two make of it? Ben: Honestly? I think it's like deja vu. Two years ago I went out on a mission that dealt with a missing building. But that was a toilet emporium that got blown up by a group of thugs in Undertown. This seems a bit more than what Psyphon's gang was capable of. Rook: Do you think someone more powerful took over for him? Ben: up at the building No, but I think I have an idea of how this happened. See if you can find anyone inside who knows what was in that safe. nodded and walked inside. Ben looked down at the Omnitrix and activated it, scrolling through the icons until he found the one he was looking for, and then pressed down on the core. His entire body changed to a bright, glowing red. A skin-tight, black and white suit covered most of his body. He looked up as his eyes changed to be completely green, and yellow eyebrows sprouted from above them. A big, clunky, grey suit formed around him. The helmet of the suit closed onto him and the three openings in the helmet lit up with red energy as the sequence ended. NRG: I hope I'm wrong on this... up at the building through the three slots in his faceplate, NRG could see a white aura around the building. NRG: Damnit. That's not ideal. Officer Curry: What's not ideal? NRG: This building is completely surrounded in background radiation. Officer Curry: Should we be worried about that? NRG: The background radiation itself? No, not particularly. But what caused it... This background radiation was caused by time travel. Whoever or whatever did this moved the building through time. Officer Curry: Without any regard to those inside? NRG: I think there was plenty of regard for them. With time powers, they easily could have just slowed time to do this undercover. Whoever this is wanted to make a scene. Officer Curry: Trying to get your attention. NRG: It wouldn't surprise me. stepped out of the building and approached the other two. NRG: Did anyone know anything? Rook: Unfortunately, no. The safe was located on the uppermost floor, and anyone here who knew what was in it is no longer alive. NRG: Go figure. Rook: However, I did manage to find trace amounts of extraterrestrial DNA from within the safe. NRG: Which species? Rook: Chronosapien. NRG: Temporal background radiation around a building that has a safe containing something that had Chronosapien DNA on it. I don't like this. afar on one of the nearby buildings, the person from earlier watched NRG and Rook before looking out to the water. They reached out their arm, aimed in the direction they were looking, and then clenched their left fist. There was a rumbling heard. Everyone turned to the water where the noise came from, and one of the mutated, purple and grey To'Kustars dubbed "Way Bads" appeared out of seemingly nowhere. From NRG's point of view, it had the same white aura as the building. Officer Curry: Didn't you people take care of those things?! NRG: It's not from this time, it has background radiation! to Rook Make sure everyone here stays safe, I'll handle the Way Bad. nodded as NRG ran and jumped into the water. A green flash was seen beneath the surface. Rook: Everyone! I must ask that you back up and remain calm! everyone backing up, Rook placed down the Prototool, which then generated a large, orange barrier between the city and the Way Bad. Near the Way Bad's foot, Ripjaws shot up out of the water and quickly pressed the Omnitrix. In another green flash, Ripjaws was wrapped in tan bandages, changing into Snare-Oh. He shot his bandages up at the shoulder spike of the Way Bad, and pulled himself all the way up. Snare-Oh: Tell ya what, you promise to go down easy, I'll use Clockwork to change you back to how you were before... This. Deal? Way Bad swatted Snare-Oh off of him, only for the latter to shoot bandages from his back to the elbow-spike of the Way Bad. Snare-Oh: I'll take that as a no. swung up and landed on the Way Bad's arm, then jumped off of it just before the Way Bad could crush him. He then turned around and shot bandages out, wrapping the Way Bad's hand to his arm. Still attached, he swung down, his feet skidding across the surface of the water, then swung up and detached himself, being eye level with the Way Bad. He shot out bandages from his chest, blinding the Way Bad. Falling down, Snare-Oh shot out bandages from both his arms and his back, wrapping up the Way Bad's legs. With them wrapped up, Snare-Oh swung himself back up to the top of the Way Bad. A ripping sound was heard. Snare-Oh looked and saw the bandages on the Way Bad's hand/arm was beginning to tear. Snare-Oh reinforced them with bandages from his back before using those in his hands to wrap around the Way Bad's head fin, then, with those around the fin still attached to him, he jumped from the Way Bad into the water, pulling the giant down with him. As the Way Bad fell into the water, a massive wave shot towards the street, only to be blocked by the barrier set up by the Prototool. Soaking wet, Snare-Oh pulled himself out of the water onto the streets, where the civilians were cheering at his success. Rook: I was not expecting you to take that approach. Snare-Oh: Audience loves a surprise. looked up and saw the person on top of the building just as they turned to walk away. Snare-Oh quickly shot up to the top of the building, but the person was nowhere to be seen. He was kicked down by the figure suddenly appearing from above. Just before Snare-Oh could wrap them up, they disappeared again. As Snare-Oh went to get up, he was grabbed by the neck by the person, who then spoke in a raspy, masculine voice, amplified by his helmet/mask. Person: I'm going to give you this choice once. Stay out of my way, or perish with the others. Snare-Oh: Others? person was then kicked to the side by Rook. As Snare-Oh got up, he wrapped up the mysterious person in bandages from his chest and pulled him closer. Snare-Oh: If you wanted me to stay out of the way, then you shouldn't have gotten my attention. the person managed to cloes his left fist, and Snare-Oh's Omnitrix flashed red just beforfe changing him back into Ben. Freed from the bandages, the person kicked down Ben and punched Rook away, and then disappeared. The two sat up, obviously confused, looking at each other. Ben: This is... not how I wanted to spend our last day on Earth before the galactic road trip. the building, Ben was looking inside the safe. Ben: What exactly qualfies as "trace amounts" when it comes to DNA? The thing is empty. Rook: Considering that DNA is microscopic, there could be plenty in there. pressed the faceplate of the Omnitrix and it pushed back, the core popping up. He put it into the safe, and it flashed yellow, scanning the inside of the safe. Rook kneeled down, confused. Rook: You already have a Chronosapien, why would you need to scan the DNA? Ben: I can temporarily overwrite the DNA in the Omnitrix's database so we can see who exactly we're looking for. Rook: Since when could you do that? also looked confused. Ben: I'm... not sure. It just kinda came to me. I actually don't know if I can do that. Omnitrix finished scanning and the core changed back to green. Omnitrix: DNA sample scanned and recognized. Chronosapien temporarily overwritten. Ben: Nevermind, I can. pulled back the Omnitrix, stood up, and then pressed the core down after selecting Clockwork. Rather than his body turning a golden-copper like usual, it turned a dark grey. His normally large, rotund body was even larger and rounder, with silver cylindrical canisters coming off of his back. He grew an angular, grey cog on the top of his head. His face changed to have large eyebrows, and a green grillplate where his mouth would be. As the transformation finished, Rook looked on in shock. Rook: Maltruant? Did you not defeat him? Clockwork: I caused a time loop. When I defeated him, all that really happened was his parts were strewn about again, like when we first had to deal with him. Rook: A piece of Maltruant in a safe, stolen by someone else with time powers. Clockwork: I guess the time war isn't over after all. And I think I know just the person who'd want to reignite it. Rook: Assuming we are thinking of the same person, and I believe we are, why would he want to? Maltruant betrayed him. Clockwork: Eon's always been a bit unpredictable. If Maltruant is in pieces, he could easily gain an upper hand in... whatever it is he's planning. Rook: Could he be trying to keep Maltruant from being recreated? Clockwork: Or recreate Maltruant with his own agenda in mind. paused for a moment. Clockwork: This is too easy. We shouldn't be able to figure it out that fast. Rook: That is unless he wanted us to. Clockwork: Ah, there it is. There's the real question. pressed the Omnitrix, changing back to human. Ben: Why would he want us to figure it out that fast? Rook: Perhaps a red herring. Ben: Which then leads back to the question of Eon's actual plan. Assuming it is Eon. The only thing we know for sure is this safe, for whatever reason, held a piece of Maltruant. Everything else is speculation. Major Events Part 1 *It is revealed that the events of A New Dawn caused a shift in time, altering many events within the previous four shows. *NRG, Ripjaws, Snare-Oh, Clockwork reappear. *Overflow and Sandbloxx debut. *Eon steals a piece of Maltruant, and is revealed to have been doing so for a while, preparing to continue the time war. * Characters *Ben Tennyson (first reappearance) *Rook Blonko (first reappearance) *Gwen Tennyson (first reappearance) *Kevin Levin (first reappearance) *Professor Paradox (first reappearance) Villains *Eon (first reappearance) *Way Bad *Maltruant (first reappearance, cameo) Aliens Used Part 1 *NRG (first reappearance) *Ripjaws (first reappearance, cameo) *Snare-Oh (first reappearance) *Clockwork (first reappearance, Maltruant form) *Overflow (debut; selected alien was Humungousaur) *Sandbloxx (debut) Part 2 *Kickin Hawk *Overflow *Lodestar *Clockwork Trivia *The title of this episode is a reference to the first episode of Ben 10: Omniverse, titled The More Things Change Part 1. *NRG being the first alien used hearkens back to the theme of fire aliens being first used, with Heatblast for the original series, Swampfire for Alien Force and the Ultimatrix, and Ultimate Swampfire for the first Ultimate that Ben used. Although NRG is technically radiation, he is meant to fill the "fire" category of the Andromeda aliens. **Technically, however, ChamAlien was the first alien used of the series, as he was used by Rook in The New Outbreaks, but NRG was the first used in the series proper. *NRG is revealed to be able to see and properly identify different types of radiation. *The Omnitrix is revealed to be able to temporarily overwrite the DNA sample of an alien with a DNA sample of the same species.